On the 1st of December 2020 we had only 1 day left of a uniform, blanket lockdown in England. On that day we observed MPs vote on the government’s proposed replacement system, which is a return to the tiered system but this time we will see tighter restrictions. If this legislation (the government’s proposal) didn’t pass, then at 00:01 on Wednesday (2nd December) we would have been left without a lockdown. This would have effectively meant there will be no restrictions in force and without restrictions I can only see an instant descension into societal reckless behaviour (I should note that it would only be a minority and there would still probably be a cautious and sensible majority).
Labour and the SNP have decided that they will be abstaining on this vote. Labour have announced that this is partly due to the government’s lack of support for businesses. If you were unsure, abstaining means to not vote. Sir Keir Starmer (leader of the opposition and leader of the Labour Party) said he had “serious misgivings” about the government’s plans. But he also believes that it is “in the national interest” to not vote against them in order to ensure some restrictions remain. We saw a response from a No. 10 spokesman, who accused Sir Keir Starmer of “playing politics in the middle of a global pandemic”, instead of “working with the government”. But realistically with the government’s majority in parliament if their proposal was a reasonable one then they shouldn’t have a problem getting it voted through- which is what happened.
But annoyingly for Boris and his cabinet, several Tory MPs publicly expressed their disagreement or issues with this return to a tiered system. This includes the 1922 Committee (a committee of all backbench Conservative MPs) chairman, Sir Graham Brady, who said that he wanted to see people “treated as adults” and trusted with their own health decisions. Additionally, a slightly unsure conservative MP for Mid-Derbyshire, Pauline Latham, said that they “might” support the government in white on the tiered measures if “more evidence” is laid out. The Tories needn’t have worried however, as they claimed the majority vote, the results being 291 ayes-78 noes.
Personally, considering the two main opposition parties had abstained I’m surprised that there were 78 votes against it. Out of 261 opposition MPs (Lib Dems, Labour and SNP MPs totalled) only 11 (that being the number of Lib Dem MPs) were expected to vote. The significant difference between expected opposition voting and the actual number of noes in the vote, must signify the doubt held by some Tory backbenchers; who at least don’t just jump on the Tory voting train blindly accepting the voting instructions from above as correct.
Teen Politics 
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